Mormons and Prop 8

How did the Mormons mobilize for Prop 8?

On June 29, 2008, a letter from the Mormon Prophet was read in every California congregation commanding that they fight for Prop 8 with their time and money. The church then mobilized its members:

• Priesthood leaders contacted each individual member of the church to assure their compliance in donating money, placing yard signs, and volunteering in organized actions.
• Each congregation was ordered to “call” a Prop 8 Coordinator. A Mormon “calling” is a summons from God to serve.
• Weekly speeches on Prop 8 were given from the pulpit.
• There were special Sunday School lessons on the proposition.
• At special meetings across the state, members listened to live satellite broadcasts from headquarters, ordering each member to contribute 100 hours of volunteer service for Prop 8.
• Members where emailed regularly soliciting donations.
• Prosperous members were approached to make larger contributions.
• Members who did not agree were charged with opposing core doctrine and opposing the Prophet.
• Mormon Bishops questioned support of Prop 8 in “Temple Interviews,” threatening access to the temple and subsequent shaming.
• Church members were ordered to disguise their actions. They were to not go in pairs, not wear white shirts and ties, and not to identify themselves as Mormon during their neighborhood actions.

How were Mormons so organized?

Mormons are always so organized. It is one of their great strengths. You absolutely want the Mormons around when a natural disaster hits. They are scary when they come after your rights.

Every Mormon is under the direct authority of a male priesthood holder who receives instructions through a well-defined hierarchy from headquarters in Salt Lake City. Every member can receive instructions, be organized, and be pressured to conform through this efficient organization.

Couldn’t individual Mormons decide not to participate?

Yes and No. Individual Mormons have “free agency” to follow their own conscience. On church matters their thoughts and feelings should eventually conform with church doctrine. People whose public pronouncements vary too far from church edicts are excommunicated. A quick Internet search yields examples, but most are private. Mormons who speak openly of gay children or relatives are considered brave.

Some Mormons did speak out in opposition to Prop 8. From millions of Mormons, something like 300 signed an online petition against it. The owner of that website is being excommunicated. Some intrepid members created touching YouTube videos of their personal feelings viewable here, and here, although several of the best have been removed by their owners. I fear for why. One ex-football player’s wife came out in strong support. (Thanks Barbara!) Her husband did not join her.

Why single out Mormons? Aren’t other churches the same?

Mormons claim they should not be singled out. They say they didn’t do anything different than other churches. It is hard to read the above and agree. What the Mormons did was overkill. It felt like bullying by a weirdly obsessive group.

Don’t Mormons have a long history of bigotry?

Sadly, this recent effort is part of a long history:

• Blacks. The Mormon Church institutionally discriminated against blacks for most of its history. Black people were allowed to join the church, but were not allowed to hold positions of authority (“the priesthood”). The Mormon Prophet received a revelation in 1978 saying that God changed that policy. See fuller discussion here.
• Interracial Marriage. The Mormon Church did not recognize marriages between black and whites. Brigham Young, the founder of Utah, said, “Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain [blacks], the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.”
• Slavery. While some Mormons were abolitionist, and even persecuted for that stand, others owned slaves. Black slaves were part of Brigham Young’s original wagon party as it entered the Salt Lake valley, sent ahead by their Mormon owners in the East to prepare the way.
• Native Americans. The defining Mormon scripture, the Book of Mormon, tells the story of the good and bad people who lived in the Americas, and clarifies that all living Native Americans are descendants of the bad people who killed off the good. On a particularly heinous note, it claims you can tell the good from the bad by their skin color, and those with dark skin can become white if they become righteous. (These passages where changed from “white” to “pure” in the 1980’s.)
• Settlement. Mormons celebrate their pioneer heritage and the heroic settlement of the West. The wars to subjugate the indigenous people are not part of the church’s narrative.
• Women in the Church. Women do not have power in the church’s official hierarchy. Only male priesthood holders run the Mormon Church. A woman’s auxiliary, called the Relief Society, is for women, but has no jurisdiction over men.
• Women’s Rights. The only other time Mormons mobilized their members for a political action was to stop civil rights of women. Under orders from the Prophet, Mormons mobilized to stop states from ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment, or ERA, in the 1970s, playing a role in guaranteeing that women did not gain equal rights under the US Constitution. Mormon women who spoke for the amendment were excommunicated. 

So while individual Mormons may harbor more or less bigotry in their personal views (my grandparents ran a mini-UN out of their Salt Lake City basement), the institution has a dark history.

What about Gay Mormons?

For a church claiming to have all the knowledge mankind needs from God (uh, yeah), Mormon understanding of homosexuality is remarkably shallow. The church’s official policy for sexually questioning individuals was to heterosexually marry. Shock therapy was commonly administered. The church now says that same-sex attraction is not sinful and may include “deep emotional, social and physical feelings” – but acting on those feelings is a sin. So you can “be” gay, but you can’t actually be gay. Gay Mormons should stay in the church, remain faithful, suppress feelings, be celibate and not “flaunt” their orientation. (Seriously. Their literature uses that word.)

Cruelly, perpetuation of these attitudes by church officials frequently leads to depression and suicide among gay Mormons. Gay Mormons are sent to “reparative therapy” or to a Mormon-only ex-gay group, and when that is not successful, they are excommunicated from the church. There is a group, Affirmation, for gay Mormons. It is far outside the church.

Isn’t this incredibly ironic, given the whole polygamy thing? Don’t they get it?

Yes, it is ironic. And No, they don’t get it.

Mormons were polygamists. After a long and bitter struggle, the primary LDS church gave up polygamy when the U.S. government threatened the existence of the church. That is why Mitt Romney’s father was born in Mexico: his family fled to continue the practice as U.S. authorities cracked down. Most of the old Mormon families have similar stories of hiding in the mountains or Federal prisons.

For some reason, Mormons do not draw lessons from their own history to gain compassion about other’s relationships. Their experience with the government and their families does not soften their view of others, or inform their view of the role of the state in marriage choices.

Why are Mormons so focused on gay people? What’s their beef with us?

Who knows. 

• Family As Theology: They say it is because they are family centered, and their theology does have us as one large family. I guess they don’t like the gaily colored branches of their tree.
• Our Marriages Ruin Their Marriages: They revere marriage, and say we would ruin their marriages if we got us some.
• Threatens Patriarchy: Gay men bring the feminine element into the male sphere. Patriarchy fights that. Salt Lake City has a significant lesbian community that doesn’t seem . The Mormons seem to have a particular problem with gay men. (And we all know what kind of men are most uncomfortable with gay men…)
• In With The Cool Crowd: Long taunted as “not really Christian,” Mormons are trying to prove their mettle in the conservative religious community.
• Unresolved Issues: Mormons are unreconciled with parts of their own history of “deviant” marriage, so they enforce a control-freaky “normalcy” on themselves, and on others.
• Bullied Become Bullies: Mormons are teased about polygamy, so they oppress the gays.
• They Are Bigots: they simply oppose those different from themselves.

Can’t we reason with the Mormons? Teach them?

I am not optimistic. While many Mormons can be compassionate, the authorities are not. The church does no meaningful outreach to LGBT people, and the rare meetings with gay groups are big news. Worse, even the sane Mormons cannot span the conflict between their own feelings and the beliefs of their church. Like the “good Germans,” they are zealous followers, without feeling responsible for the consequences. I have watched the church for decades on this topic and have seen little meaningful evolution.

It is always worth reaching out to individual Mormons. One big thing we learn from coming out is that the more people know gay people personally, the more they become our supporters. See any very gay city for plentiful examples.

One good thing about the Mormon Church is that it does change its doctrines. Sadly, these changes tend to lag the rest of American culture by 20 or 30 years. We can expect a Mormon revelation from God that gay relationships are OK some time in the 2030s, and the church will then rewrite its history as if all this never happened.